Tag: Charles Kennedy

Below is the text of the speech made by Charles Kennedy, the then Leader of the Liberal Democrats, in Brussels on 5 December 2000.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am delighted to be able to be here today to talk about Britain’s role in the EU and the case for the Single Currency.

So much of the discourse about Europe or the Euro in Britain is characterised by scare stories and misinformation that it is scarcely possible to have a serious debate on the issues any more. Any positive news stories about the benefits of EU membership or the virtues of the Single Currency tend to be subverted by the sceptical British press in favour of scare stories about straight bananas or the fact that the European Union flag will fly alongside the Union Jack over Downing Street for one day this year to mark our membership of the EU.

You would think from the hysterical reaction in one particular Sunday newspaper a couple of days ago to that story that we weren’t actually members of the European Union at all. It is becoming more and more necessary in Britain for those of us who support Britain’s membership of the European Union and think that a successful Single Currency will yield benefits for British businesses, and British workers, and British consumers to go out and make the case for them both time and time again.

The Liberal Democrats are strong advocates of the European Union. Let us not forget the dream of the original members of what is now the EU. It was that a degree of economic and political integration would bring co-operation and, more importantly, peace and stability to Western Europe, which had been notably absent for centuries.

Having, most of us, grown up in the last fifty years it is perhaps easy to underestimate the degree to which the European Union has been the cause and the guarantor of that peace. The longest continual period of peace in Western Europe since Roman times. Membership of the European Union also gives Britain more power and influence than if we were a nation alone.

Look at the example of British beef and the BSE crisis. The United States has banned the import of British beef for a number of years. and we have absolutely no power to stop them. Yet France also maintains an unwarranted ban on our beef. The difference is that in this case, we are able to complain to the European Union who are now taking legal steps to force the French to lift this unnecessary and unacceptable ban.

Indeed, given the current fears over the safety beef produced in other EU countries, notably France, I find it hard to understand any justification for the French action. Measures must be taken speedily to reassure public opinion as to the safety of beef in the EU, so as not to undermine confidence in beef produced in this country. I want to see nothing less than a total EU-wide ban on all cattle over 30-months old entering the food-chain. The European Union must provide 100 per cent compensation to farmers for destroying cattle of that age.

The EU must not shy away from taking the strong action necessary to ensure public safety and reassure public opinion. Membership of the European Union gives us the leverage to fight for this to happen. If we were not members our calls would mean nothing.

In a wider sense, Britain’s place in the world order has changed dramatically, in the years since we joined what was then the Common Market. Britain is now a stronger trading nation than at any time since World War Two.

In the years since 1973, our trade has increased by 138%. More than half of British trade now is actually with other EU countries. In 1999, the value of Britain’s trade with the EU approached £350 billion. Almost a tenth of that was with Belgium. As businessmen and women, you will know how easily levels of trade are affected by tariffs, barriers to entry, and exchange rate fluctuations.

So long as we are members of the European Union we will enjoy the benefits of a common market. But if we remain outside of the Single Currency we remain open to the damage that an unstable and high exchange rate can do to our exporters and to inward investment in Britain. The high pound has already been doing serious damage to our manufacturing industry and exporters in recent years. If this were to be perpetuated in the future it could have a seriously adverse impact on Britain as a trading nation.

The Liberal Democrats have not been alone in arguing this case. But we have perhaps been the most consistent. The Prime Minister, for example, probably shares this view. Although some of his ministers, including the Chancellor, may not. But he is timid when it comes to discussing the benefits of joining a successful Single Currency, preferring to hide behind a series of utterly subjective economic tests laid down by Gordon Brown. They are a fig leaf to hide the Government’s indecision.

Yet, I believe people need the British Government to take a lead, more than ever, on the issue of the Single Currency. To give them the certainty they need to plan their businesses or to give them the certainty that their job is secure.

It is important also to take heed of the views of those in business and industry when looking at the case for or against the Euro. Over the course of the last year, numerous big hitters in business have spoken out in favour of Britain joining a successful Single Currency. Richard Branson, for example, has let it be known that he is increasingly concerned about our non-membership. Earlier this year he wrote: “Outside the Euro we will be much poorer both as a nation and as individuals.” A month later, the President of the Japanese electronics giant Matsushita spoke out of his concerns that Britain had still not made a commitment to join the Euro. “The immediate question is when the pound will be included in the Euro” he said. “If Britain does nothing to solve the problem, foreign companies, regardless of whether they are Japanese American, or whatever nationality, may exit the country.”

These words should be heard by all politicians when deciding whether we should join the Single Currency. But I readily accept that this issue cannot, and should not, just be decided on economic grounds. There are constitutional implications to consider also. That is why the Liberal Democrats were the first major political party to call for a referendum on this issue. To call for the British people to have the final say on whether to adopt the Euro.

All I ask is that the public are given all the information on the pros and cons of membership in order to make an informed decision when the times comes, rather than being fed a diet of half-truths, exaggeration and plain hysteria as is the case all too often at present. The British people deserve nothing less than the whole truth.

Below is the text of the speech made by Charles Kennedy on 24 September 2001.

We meet against an unimaginable backdrop.

It is hard to find words adequate to give proper voice by way of response, far less respect.

How can day-to-day vocabulary, measure up to such sheer criminality?

For me, watching those grim images on television – again, and again and again – there were all the normal, human reactions.

Disbelief. Then alarm.

Horror – as the truth sank in.

Compassion for all those people and their families, so many of whom were British.

Can you imagine that last mobile phone call from your husband, or wife or child?

The helplessness. And with it, the hopelessness. We’re here because we don’t believe in hopelessness. We actually believe in hope. But hope requires purpose. And purpose requires direction.
When I spoke again with the Prime Minister earlier today,
we were clear on a number of matters.

First, common resolve to root out terrorism wherever it may be. Second, the need to balance legislation with the interests of domestic civil rights. Third, vigilance against anyone who seeks to target and attack any of our ethnic communities. Fourth, no ruling out of a further recall of Parliament, if events require it.

Now immediate emotions inevitably begin to subside, but they will never go away. Nor should they. We Liberal Democrats must be clear about our intentions.

Resolve. There cannot be capitulation to the terrorist.

Determination. That we strike at the heart of international terrorism.

And equal determination that in combating terrorism we do not lose sight of the fact, at one at the same time, that we live – actually – in a liberal democracy, and the principles of democracy are what we’re all about. So as we gather here this week, this is one of the challenges facing us as Liberal Democrats.

One of our particular duties, is to make it clear that short-term knee-jerk responses, never provide long-term solutions.

We have to be especially vigilant against those people who would seek to make scapegoats of Muslims in Britain.

Let us be quite clear, we have no quarrel with the Muslim community and no quarrel with the Islamic faith. Last Friday, when I visited a Mosque in London, that was the message I took to our fellow citizens on all our behalves. And that message went out loud and clear from this conference hall this morning.

But let us also remember. There will be particularly difficult dilemmas ahead for our party. Those difficulties will involve a gauging between the balance of the liberty of the individual against the threat that the terrorist presents to that very liberty.

Do not underestimate the real, ongoing pressures and the public scrutiny that goes with that, which will be upon us in the times ahead. Proportionate response is not just about military measures.

Proportionate response is also about civil liberties. The scandal that is terrorism is all about civil liberties. In facing those dilemmas, we are best to remember our first principles. We subscribe to the rule of law, violated over the skyline of the United States, on September 11th.

But that subscription, as the very word implies, comes with a price tag attached. It involves realism and risk.

Realism means facing the stark truth, that the terrorist will stop at nothing, absolutely nothing. Risk is about the consequences of your response.

So let us be clear about these first principles.

Civil liberties – yes.

The rule of international law – yes.

Co-operation amongst sane-minded peoples across the globe – yes.

All underpinned by a philosophic and fundamental commitment to the integrity of the individual, and the supremacy of that individual over the power of the nation state. But recognising also that people need and are looking for security and reassurance, and that the proper role of the state is to provide that.

Now that’s where we stand. And that defines our response and our reasoning in the wake of these dreadful events. When Parliament was reconvened, I couldn’t help but cast my mind back to such a happy year as a student in the mid-West of the States.

Friendships were made there. What struck me then, what I didn’t understand properly, was the extent to which the mid-West can almost be a country which is very different
from the rest of the country, which, when you think about it, itself is a continent.

But what is so striking now is the remarkable degree of spontaneous unity right across America. A unity of understandable anger. But the fear that can flow from that can be dangerous.

That’s where a candid friend comes in. Standing shoulder to shoulder, but always there for the occasional cautionary tap on the shoulder.

The most special relationships, in my experience, are based on a combination of trust and mutual respect.

And as America’s candid friend, we are able to say: there are no blank cheques to be issued to the United States.

The way to defeat international terrorism, is through international co-operation, based on international law, clear intelligence and a measured and appropriate military response.

And let me say this where military response is concerned: we have a duty and a responsibility to ensure that where our armed forces are involved, the risks to them are quantified and minimised.

We cannot shelve or abandon that requirement.

That means supporting American actions only in the knowledge that Britain will be involved in all planning and risk assessment.

All that, we owe that to our armed forces.

And let me also, incidentally, pay tribute to the BBC World Service. As ever, one of the key contributions that Britain can make to the coalition against terror and suppression is to offer accurate information and rational analysis.

But do remember. War is not the word. Nor is crusade. Resolve is.

We have got to fashion a mindset, to find that approach which begins to address the roots of such evil.

Below is the text of the speech made by Charles Kennedy, the then Leader of the Liberal Democrats, on 5 March 2005 to the party’s Spring Conference.

Conference,

We Liberal Democrats are ready for a General Election.

And we are looking forward to it.

We have a strong message and a powerful case to put forward.

In so many ways the story of this parliament, now coming to an end, has been the way the Liberal Democrats have emerged as the real opposition to Tony Blair’s Labour Government.

The Real Opposition to an illegal war in Iraq.

The Real Opposition to Labour’s authoritarian instincts.

The Real Opposition against student top-up fees, against poverty pensions, against the Council Tax, against false choice in our public services.

We have been principled.
We have stood up for the people of Britain.
We have not wavered when the going got tough.

We have shown our resolve as a national opposition party.
As a result we have grown in strength and in support.

At this General Election – we will be the Real Alternative.
We will be the party that people turn to.
People want a credible, principled political party which offers a different vision of what Britain can be.

They want a real alternative to Labour.
At this General Election the Liberal Democrats will be that Real Alternative.

The main issue currently before parliament – is an issue and a set of principles alongside it which go to the very heart of our democracy.

And it shows just how important it is to have a real alternative in Britain.

I am talking of course of the proposed control orders being introduced by the Home Secretary.

The Liberal Democrats – for the past three years – have been principled and persistent critics of the situation at Belmarsh Prison.

For us it is utterly unacceptable for individuals to be incarcerated – facing indefinite detention – without charge and without trial.

That it is not the Liberal Democrat way.
And that is not the British way.

And that’s why the Law Lords declared the Government’s policy illegal.

So the government were duty-bound to respond.
And respond they did with their ill-fated proposals for house arrest.

It must be a judge – never a politician – who decides whether someone is to be locked up.

Mark Oaten and I sustained that key concern at the Downing Street discussions which then followed.

And we welcomed the degree of undoubted movement on the Government’s part which had taken place in the intervening period.

Welcome movement – but by no means enough.

Fundamental objections remained.

And those concerns still remain.

Now, as this legislation is before the House of Lords, let us be crystal clear about the ongoing Liberal Democrat position.

There is an onus here on the politicians – irrespective of party – to seek a consensus where responding responsibly to what I acknowledge is both the threat and the reality of international terrorism.

We are willing to try and find a solution which delivers proper security with a respect for human rights.
We are not however about to set off down a path which leads inexorably to a surrender of principles.
Anything but.

That is the spirit in which we have engaged on these matters.
We have a real alternative which will maintain our security and protect our liberties:-
And these will continue to be our guiding principles.

1. Prosecution should always be the first option.

2. Decisions over detention must be judicial and not in the first instance political.

3. The standard of proof must be of the highest possible order.

4. Defendants must have access to defence lawyers and to see the evidence against them.

A sensible Government would have come up with proposals based on these principles in the first place.

Without these safeguards Liberal Democrats in Parliament will not support this Bill.

All too often with this government, when presented with a genuine problem the instinctive response is an authoritarian one.
Undermining trial by jury, house arrest, compulsory Identity Cards

That is not the Liberal Democrat way.
That is not the British way.

This issue is not the only one where our party has been well tested in this parliament.

Take of course the issue of Iraq.

With regard to the war itself, our views of course are well known.
We took that stand in Parliament against the war.
The Conservatives backed Tony Blair.

Tony Blair took us to war in Iraq on the basis of the supposed threat of Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction.

Mere weeks before the war the Prime Minister was still telling Parliament “I detest his regime?but even now, he could save it.”

Now, because it has been shown that there were no weapons of mass destruction, the Prime Minister says that the removal of Saddam justifies the war in itself.
Not what he was saying just before it.

And today – if he is so confident of his case – why will he not allow the Attorney General’s legal advice to be published?

The Prime Minister wants us to move on – but we cannot until we know the full facts.

He should publish – and if necessary be damned.

Of course Britain should honour its legal and moral responsibilities with regard to the situation in Iraq.
But we need to focus on a proper exit strategy – as we warned at the outset.
That should mean a phased withdrawal of British troops to coincide with the end of the United Nations mandate this year.

It is vital to apply your principles with consistency – at home and abroad.

And nowhere is that responsibility more required of politicians than when it comes to discussion of the issues concerning immigration and asylum.

I believe the duty here for politicians is to begin with a straightforward statement of personal belief.

And this is mine.

I believe that our country is a richer, more vibrant society precisely because it is a multi-racial, multi-ethnic society.

Let that be the starting point for any debate over immigration and asylum.

And let us not confuse the two in people’s minds either.

On immigration we have no problem over identifying quotas for skilled shortages in our society.

But we would do so on the basis of an independent evaluation of the needs of the British economy – not the prejudices of politicians.

Where would the National Health Service be without the numbers of migrant workers – doctors and nurses – on our wards?

On asylum, let us not go down the route of declaring artificial limits.

This country has a proud history of opening its doors to generations of people fleeing personal persecution, civil unrest and war.

We must never surrender that track record.

So my message here is clear.

Where immigration and asylum issues are concerned, the challenge is for the politicians to make the systems work in the best long-term interests of the country.

But never to pander and play to people’s fears.

In recent weeks, much of the political debate has centred on what the parties plan to put in their election manifestos – and rightly so.

But if you take the big issues of this Parliament – Iraq, the Hutton and Butler inquiries, anti-terrorist legislation, top up fees, foundation hospitals – these were scarcely mentioned during the campaign four years ago.
They largely fall into the category – which Harold McMillan once described as ‘events, dear boy, events.’

Manifestos will obviously matter, but voters will simultaneously be making a more fundamental judgement;
They will be assessing how the different parties might deal with those ‘events’ in the next four years;
And seeking solutions which reflect their personal hopes and fears.

How will they judge the Conservatives?
Their record in this parliament has been pathetic.
They have flip-flopped over the big issues of the day.
Iraq, Hutton, Butler, top-up fees, ID cards?I could go on.
When called upon to make a judgement – in the heat of the moment – the Conservatives have consistently made the wrong one – then tried to back-track when they see political advantage.
Poor judgement and opportunism.
You won’t win elections like that because people won’t trust you with Government.

And Labour?
What a squandering of the good will which greeted Tony Blair in 1997!
What an abuse of public trust!
Will voters really forgive being misled on Iraq?
Or the broken promises on tax?
Or top up fees?
Or the instinctive authoritarianism?

And what about the dismal failure to take a lead on Europe?

Which leaves us – the Liberal Democrats. The Real Alternative.

Throughout the course of this parliament, week on week, issue after issue, we have acted in accordance with our principles.

We argue sincerely for what we believe is in the best interests of our country.

For us politics isn’t about gimmicky pledge cards with vacuous statements.
It’s about real solutions to real problems.
It’s about being straightforward about how you will deliver.
And it’s about being straightforward also about how much it will all cost.

Throughout this parliament, I have insisted that our balance sheet must add up.

And on tax, we seek to be both bold and fair.

Britain is the 4th largest economy in the world.
We have world class businesses and a world class workforce.
So why are 2 million of our pensioners living below the poverty line?
And why are the poorest in our society paying a higher proportion of their income in tax than the richest?

There is another way – that is what being the real alternative is all about.

Being bold doesn’t mean making promises we can’t keep.

Boldness requires us to make the case for taxation. Why? Because people know you can’t get something for nothing.
And boldness means making the case for tax reform, so that it is fair.

At the last election Labour promised not to put up income tax. What did they do? They raised National Insurance.

The Conservatives are currently suggesting that they can cut income tax, stamp duty, inheritance tax, capital gains tax, council tax, savings tax, small business tax, environmental taxes AND increase public spending all at the same time.
Oh – and cut the national debt while they are at it.
No one really believes them. Candy floss economics.

And even if you do look at the small print of their plans it shows the tax burden will actually rise under the Conservatives – by £24 billion.
So much for straight-talking there.
In contrast, what we propose is credible.

Anyone who earns over £100,000 would pay 50p in the pound on every pound earned above £100,000.
According to government figures, that would raise £5.2 billion a year.
What would we use that sum for?
1. We would abolish top-up and tuition fees
2. We would provide free personal care for the elderly, just as we have delivered in Scotland
3. We would scrap the Council tax and hold down the rate of local taxes.

Now this is targeted taxation for targeted spending commitments.

And for those who predict gloom and doom, the end of civilisation as we know it – remind them, this is still a lower rate of top tax than was the case for the majority of the period that Mrs. Thatcher was Prime Minister of this country.

And, strange to record, the sun kept rising in the east and setting in the west.

What’s more, this tax change will affect just 1% of the wealthiest income tax payers in the country.
So by definition 99% of people will not be paying more.
But the benefits will be for 100% of people.
Now that is a real alternative.

As for tax reform – a fair tax system is one which is based on the principle of people’s ability to pay.

Council tax is fundamentally unfair. It bears no relationship to earnings and means that the poorest in our society pay more from their income than do the richest. That cannot be right.

So we would scrap the Council Tax and replace it with a local income tax.
We would do it through the Inland Revenue which is cheaper to administer.
As confirmed by the Institute of Fiscal Studies last week about half of people would pay less. A quarter would be unaffected. And a quarter would pay a bit more.
A typical family would be £450 a year better off.
And over half of all pensioners, would pay no local tax at all.
Now that is the real alternative.

Being in Government is all about priorities.
What you choose to spend tax payer’s money on – and what you choose not too.

Being the real alternative means spending public money differently.

We would raise £5 billion a year by scrapping departments like the DTI and ODPM and transferring key functions elsewhere.
We would scrap the next stage of Eurofighter, the baby bonds and the compulsory Identity Cards scheme.
Now these are tough choices.
But look at what we would deliver with that money

10,000 more police of the streets – cutting crime and the fear of crime.

A Citizen’s Pension for the over 75s – Over £100 a month extra on the basic state pension, millions of pensioners off means testing, and an end to the scandalous discrimination in the pensions system against women.

An end to the hidden NHS waiting lists – quick diagnosis so treatment is not delayed.

Free eye tests and dental checks.

Lower class sizes for our youngest children – because children taught well in their early years have a far better chance of successful and rewarding lives.

Now that is the Real Alternative –
Costed, affordable polices to make Britain better, fairer, safer.
The balance sheet is balanced; the costs add up.
It’s a matter of priority.
And I think it’s a good deal.
And what’s more – I think the people of Britain will think it is a good deal.

All of this will be underpinned by a Green thread running through our manifesto.

The environment is central to our vision.

A Britain in which sustainable living is a reality so that we minimise the impact of the way we live on the world around us.

A Britain that looks beyond the Kyoto treaty to the next stage of the battle to limit climate change; standing up to the conspiracy theorists and those in denial over the threat of global warming.

You know – a month ago I challenged Tony Blair and Michael Howard about just this issue because I think the seriousness of the threat transcends party colours.

I wanted the three parties to come together to agree that the science is real and the threat is real.

To pledge ourselves to pursue new and stronger international goals on climate change.

And to make sure Britain has its own house in order by agreeing a series of long-term baseline targets for our own environment.

Sensible, consensual politics to deal with a long-term threat that faces all of us now, and the generations to come.

But such an initiative simply does not fit in with Tony Blair or Michael Howard’s idea of politics.

So again at this election, the Liberal Democrats will be the Real Alternative on the environment.

So far this campaign has had all the hallmarks of the kind of spin that turns people off.

Take the latest row over cancelled hospital operations.

The slanging match between Labour and the Conservatives – as they both scrabble for headlines – demeans our politics.

What people want are positive solutions to sustain and strengthen our National Health Service.
Right now they deserve better than they are getting.

What they seek is good schools and hospitals – run efficiently.
They want proper public provision for the weakest and most vulnerable members of our society.
They want straight talk from politicians and fairness.
They don’t want to be patronised with token promises.

And they don’t want politicians always interfering.
People want to get on with their own lives.
They want to take their own decisions in and about their own neighbourhoods and communities.

So this election will be about more than just manifesto promises.

Our party has been the real opposition in this parliament.
If you voted Conservative in 2001, yet opposed the war in Iraq.
If you don’t want compulsory Identity Cards cards.
If you are suffering under the Council Tax.
If you are worried about the environment.
What good did it do you voting Conservative?
Your vote was wasted.

Because today, the Conservatives are out of the race in Scotland and Wales, and most of urban Britain.
While they are fading, we are growing.

The challenge for our party throughout this period, and my aim as your leader, has been to show that the Liberal Democrats are credible; that we are the real alternative.

When people grow tired of the old parties they turn to us to see what we can do.
This is what has been happening in Liverpool and Newcastle – big cities run by the Liberal Democrats.
And Liberal Democrat Ministers in Scotland.

Up and down the country the Liberal Democrats exercise real power and real responsibility.

As we enter this general election people now have a much clearer idea of what we’re about.

They do see in us a real alternative on offer.

And a real alternative that’s on their side.

Where the big issues are concerned.

Axing the council tax.

Abolishing student tuition fees.

Guaranteeing free personal care for the elderly.

Tackling pension unfairness – especially for women.

Pursuing positive engagement in Europe – and the wider world.

With real action to promote the environment.

Two years ago one million people took to the streets of Britain to try to make politicians listen –
They wanted to send a message to Tony Blair – don’t go to war in Iraq.
When I am told that people in Britain don’t care about politics,
I think about the people I marched alongside that day.

People of a different political persuasion from me and people of no political persuasion.

They were fed up with the way the Prime Minister was behaving;
Fed up with the way both the old parties – Labour and the Tories – were standing shoulder to shoulder in defence of George Bush.

What they needed was a real alternative;
A party which was listening to their concerns;
A party which was prepared to stand up and say so;
The party which said no to the Prime Minister.

I am proud that we were the real alternative then.
I am proud that we have continued to stand apart from the other two parties on important issues of principle.
I am proud that when it comes to tackling unfairness in this country,
the Liberal Democrats put that top of the agenda.

We enter this election as a truly independent political party.
We will campaign through this election as an independent political party.
And we will emerge in the next House of Commons as an independent political party.

That way we will do best – by ourselves and by the country.

More votes, more seats – beyond that no glass ceilings to our ambitions.

Below is the text of the speech made by Charles Kennedy, the then Leader of the Liberal Democrats, on 23 September 2004 to the Liberal Democrat Party Conference.

It’s three party British politics. That’s been the real lesson of this year. Take those local elections. Big Liberal Democrat gains.

Taking on and trouncing Labour in places like Cardiff and Cambridge, Liverpool and Newcastle;

Making big gains from them in Leeds and Manchester as well.

While in most of these places the Conservatives just simply disappeared.

You know it is telling indeed that the voters did not think it worthwhile electing a single Conservative councillor in a place like Oxford.

And if you take Scotland and Wales into account and they’re scarcely a national UK political party any longer.

And Liberal Democrats continued making gains from the Conservatives in places like Portsmouth, St Albans and Watford.

In his first speech as the new Liberal Democrat Leader in Newcastle – after thirty years of one party Labour rule – this is what Peter Arnold had to say: – “For Newcastle Liberal Democrats, one of the most important success criteria will be the extent to which we are able to give the city back to the people…We will be doing things differently, by making sure the Council is less politically partisan and more inclusive. We will be offering Opposition Groups the opportunity to adopt a more positive role in the council’s affairs.”

Now there’s the difference for you – in a nutshell.

As that onetime Liberal, Winston Churchill, put it: “In victory – magnanimity.” That’s the breath of fresh air that we bring to British politics – and to local communities with it. That’s why we’re on the move. And that’s why we pushed Labour into third place for the first time ever in a national election. Add to those the European elections results.

We stuck firmly to our reforming pro-European principles.

And the outcome?

Two more Liberal Democrat Members of the European Parliament.

Fiona Hall in the North East. And Saj Karim in the North West. Saj – our first ever elected Liberal Democrat parliamentarian from an ethnic minority community. And about time too. But not unique for long. In Leicester South – just as in Brent East last year – we leapfrogged the Conservatives – we came from third place to take on Labour and win. Congratulations, Parmjit Gill. And never forget we came within an ace of doing the same in Birmingham Hodge Hill as well. Well done, Nicola Davies. So fantastic results. Each and every one. And when you leave Bournemouth make sure that your next stop is Hartlepool.

That’s where I’m heading next.

Immediately after this speech.

Lembit Opik is flying me there.

I kid you not.

Greater love hath no man for our party than he is prepared to place his life in Lembit’s safe keeping in the skies above us.

So I expect to see you all there in Hartlepool.

Well, I really do hope to see you all there in Hartlepool!

We are the challengers.

The Conservatives have already conceded they aren’t in the Hartlepool race.

And it’s a simple statement of fact that the Conservatives are now out of the race in most of urban Britain.

And that the only effective challenge to Labour is coming from the Liberal Democrats.

People know we’ve done it before – and we can do it again in Hartlepool.

If we go out there and make our case – make no mistake.

We CAN do it.

******

I want to talk to you today about the future.

The future of two things. The future of our party. And also the future of our country. We want the two increasingly to go hand in hand.

We know we can make the political weather – tuition fees, the council tax.

And we know we’re capable of much more yet.

But our success also poses certain questions – and rightly so.

Are these people up to it?

Are those Liberal Democrats ready for the task in hand?

Can we be sure we know what they stand for?

Well we stand for three things above all else.

Freedom. Fairness. Trust. Those are our watchwords.

Those are the core principles against which our policies must be measured.

And they are the principles which match the increasingly liberal instincts of 21st century Britain. A Britain now of many faiths, many colours, many languages; A variety of family structures; Far greater life expectancy.

And working patterns our grandparents would scarcely recognise. Social mobility and fast communications; High aspirations and far less deference; Openness and tolerance about sexual orientation. A Britain where the individual counts for so much

But still a Britain where a sense of community matters.

In so many ways that’s a liberal Britain.

It’s our task now to turn these instinctively liberal attitudes into positive votes for the party of British liberal democracy.

And it is also a Britain in which the way we are governed is being transformed.

We have a Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales, both elected by fairer votes – involving proportional representation.

And -on November 4th people in the North East will have a referendum for a regional assembly. We’re out campaigning hard for that – and I’ll be back on that campaign trail again shortly.

Devolution is at its best when it gets things done. And it’s getting things done that show people what we value and what we stand for.

It’s been a big responsibility for us, in Wales, where we helped bring much needed stability to the Assembly at a crucial moment – and better policies as a result.

Free admission to art galleries and museums, recognising that the legacy and the vitality of Celtic culture demands the decision-makers to understand not just the price of things but also the value of things.

As a result – people know more about what we stand for. And they’re voting accordingly.

Impressive gains this year in Cardiff, Bridgend and Swansea – and so many other places across the country.

And in Wales we carry on pushing for an extension to the law making powers of the Assembly – that has to be the next logical and necessary step forward.

And in Scotland where the partnership there has been delivering on many of our top priorities;

Free personal care for the elderly – delivered.

Abolishing tuition fees – delivered.

Fair votes for local government elections – being delivered.

But it doesn’t stop there.

Liberal Democrats in government in Scotland have set the new agenda for devolution.

A Scottish agenda that deals with long-term challenges – like poor health; the environment; the need to improve education, the foundation for an enterprising country.

New legislation announced by Jim Wallace just this month to provide free eye and dental checks for all.

And a new Environment Bill announced by Ross Finnie so that a green thread runs through the heart of Scottish government, one where every policy will be audited for its environmental impact.

Liberal Democrats getting things done.

And demonstrating how our approach – every time – is rooted in freedom, fairness and trust.

I’ve done a lot of travelling across Britain this year. And with it a lot of listening. I listened to the students on campus in Plymouth, worried about their steadily deepening debts and how on earth they would ever escape them.

I listened to the young mother in a Leicester shop, troubled that teachers are not getting the time to teach her children properly.

I listened to the Asian grandmother in Huddersfield, who told me about being genuinely afraid, for the first time in over thirty years in her local community, because of the growth of mindless racism among an unrepresentative few.

And then the high street traders in Birmingham, utterly sick and tired of senseless vandalism against their properties.

And their local customers, equally scared about street violence and the threat of crime as it affects them personally.

The pensioners in Exeter – bitter about their dwindling resources, confused about losing their pension books, unhappy about the level of pensions themselves and angry about seemingly never-ending council tax rises. And to the doctor in Norwich, expressing his sheer frustration at the remote, command and control from London which characterises so much of this government’s mismanagement of our National Health Service. And then the school pupils in Cardiff, thinking aloud about pollution and climate change – uncertain about the environment they would inherit.

This is our Britain today; these are typical of people’s concerns.

Well, if you seek to lead, first you must listen.

People have a huge desire to be listened to; for politicians to take the time to understand their problems.

And address those problems with solutions.

It is we Liberal Democrats that are now providing the answers.

For students – when the pupil aspires to become the student, we would encourage and enable them – by stopping tuition fees and axing top-up fees – one of the most socially retrograde acts of this government, when what Britain needs is a university system affordable to all.

For parents – we will equip children for life – because children well cared for and well taught in their early years have a far better chance of success.

So we will reduce class sizes for the youngest children and give teachers time to teach and children time to learn by abolishing unnecessary tests and red tape.

And we would ensure that every child, in every classroom, in every school is taught by a qualified teacher in the relevant subject.

That’s what the Liberal Democrats stand for.

******

For those in fear of racism – first, a real lead from politicians – celebrating the fact that our country is better, it’s richer and more diverse, precisely because it is a multicultural society. And that we have been prepared to stand out and if necessary alone in having no truck with short-term, knee-jerk responses to complex social issues. That we won’t pander to the lowest common denominator over asylum and immigration. But we’ll reform the systems – to make them fairer and faster. And that we respect people’s genuine religious and cultural identities at community level.

That’s what the Liberal Democrats stand for.

******

On Crime – 10,000 more police on the streets and cutting the time spent on paperwork, so they can spend more time tackling drug dealers, muggers and yobs.

Use prison as an opportunity to educate in the basics – numeracy, literacy – so that when they get out people will be far better able to find work and far less likely to reoffend. And for the victims of crime open up the courts so that they can confront the offenders – and speed up the system of compensation as well.

That’s what the Liberal Democrats stand for.

******

For pensioners – we will continue – to make and win the case for axing the unjust, unfair, increasingly unworkable council tax. And its replacement by a fair, local income tax – based on people’s ability to pay.

We’ll stop the scandal of elderly people having to pay for their personal care – and probably losing the family home in the process. We would deliver free long-term care for the elderly. And all pensioners over 75 – the war generation – should be entitled to a pension which lifts them above mean-testing – £100 extra a month. No-one should be demeaned in their old age anymore. And this specific pledge to women, who have long been discriminated against because of the way the pension system works.

For the first time you will be treated equally.

For the first time you will have a pension in your own right.

That’s what the Liberal Democrats stand for.

******

On health – We would put patients first and free doctors and nurses from Whitehall meddling. Liberal Democrats would hack away the red tape, abolish the absurd targets and free our frustrated doctors and nurses.

Let the local community and the local doctors and local nurses make the decisions. They are far better placed to get them right. And more emphasis than ever before should be placed on prevention of ill health and promotion of healthy lifestyles. We truly need a health and not just a sickness service.

That’s what the Liberal Democrats stand for.

******

On the environment – our determination to make the environment count at every level of Government means thinking green in every area.

Britain can’t do this alone. The Prime Minister is right to use our presidency of the EU and the G8 next year to press for consensus.

But if we can lead by example, if we can achieve our Kyoto targets ahead of time, we can encourage other countries to sign up.

If we can deliver 20% of our electricity needs through renewable energy by 2020, that would be leading by example.

Take air travel – which is fast become the world’s biggest polluter.

We should be shifting taxes on aviation away from the passenger and onto the plane itself which does the polluting.

Now that would be leading by example too, encouraging better fuel efficiency and therefore less pollution.

But quality of life actually begins at home – it’s in your street, around your community.

And our approach to the environment must begin there too.

The green thread that should run through all aspects of government, should run through all aspects of our lives also.

So more park and ride schemes for our towns and cities – cutting pollution in our streets. More local recycling initiatives – showing how all of us can make that difference within our own homes.

Cutting waste – reusing – improving.

That’s what the Liberal Democrats stand for. Freedom. Fairness. Trust. Because that’s what these – and many more – policies are rooted in. Policies designed to create more freedom.

Based on social fairness.

Not bogus, false choices – designed to distract.

But real, quality local choice – designed to deliver.

And it’s all underpinned by economic fairness as well.

This is crucial to our credibility and critical to our success.

From the outset, I have insisted that we have the most watertight set of tax and expenditure proposals possible. We want to tax more fairly and spend more wisely. Isn’t it a disgrace that after 7 years of a supposedly Labour government the poorest 20% contribute more of their income in tax than do the richest 20%? We don’t want the politics of economic envy. But we do want the politics of social equity.

What does that mean? It means asking the top 1% of income earners to pay a top marginal rate of tax of 50p for every pound earned above £100,000.

That pays for our immediate commitments to:

* Scrap tuition and top-up fees for students;

* Introduce free personal care for elderly and disabled people;

* And keep down the level of local taxes. But spending on our priorities does not mean higher taxes across the board. It means looking hard as well at how much Government spends and getting value for money for taxpayers.

And we’ve already found further large savings – at least £5bn a year – by cutting back on big, centralised government and redirecting money to priority spending:

* Dropping plans for identity cards;

* Scrapping some government departments and relocating others away from high-cost central London;

* Doing less, better and more efficiently – and concentrating more on what really matters.

It is this approach which gives us the credibility to pledge.

* Axing the £1bn Child Trust Fund, the so called baby bonds scheme, and spending the money now when children need it most, not the state stashing it away until 2022;

* 10,000 more police on the streets – cutting crime and the fear of crime;

* Making sure that by 2011 Britain finally fulfils its UN obligations by boosting the overseas aid budget to 0.7% of GNP;

* £25 more on pensions every week for those aged 75 and over with a million pensioners taken off means testing.

The figures add up; the balance sheet is balanced.

Freedom. Fairness. Trust. It is trust that has to underpin everything else. And it’s winning public trust that is going to be the biggest challenge of all. Over the course of this parliament one issue more than any other has helped define just what the Liberal Democrats stand for in the minds of millions of our fellow citizens. You know what I’m talking about. And the people know exactly what we’ve been talking about. From the outset we have provided rational, principled and consistent opposition to the war in Iraq.

We’ve done it without exaggeration. We’ve done it without name-calling. We’ve done it – quite simply – because we believed it was the right thing to do.

Now I believe the vast majority of people have made their minds up – one way or the other.

Donald Rumsfeld promised shock and awe.

What we got was shock and then steadily increasing horror.

The Prime Minister promised action on the Middle East Road Map.

What we got was little progress and more violence.

There’s a sullen, and increasingly angry mood on the issue. And understandably so.

Not least when Kofi Annan declares the war illegal.

When the Iraq Survey Group is expected to conclude that the WMD were not there.

When the Foreign Office warned of the likely disastrous consequences.

And when it appears the Government told the Bush administration, a full year before the war started, that it would not budge in its support for their policy of regime change – and yet the Prime Minister told our Parliament and our people that it was all about weapons of mass destruction.

There is a fundamental question that the Prime Minister has consistently failed to answer.

I asked him this in the House of Commons in the run up to war, and again as recently as the 20th of July this year during the debate on the Butler Report.

“Did he advise President Bush privately – long before the United Nations route was formally abandoned – that if the President decided to prosecute an invasion of Iraq, the British would be in active military support, come what may?

“If he did advise the President to that effect, when did such an exchange take place?”

When Parliament next convenes, the Prime Minister must take the first opportunity to come to the Despatch Box and make a full statement.

It’s time we got an answer.

And if the Prime Minister still refuses, the people can make a judgement.

There is the ultimate verdict of the general election itself. Lord Hutton did not provide the answer. Nor did Lord Butler. The decision to decline to participate in Lord Butler’s enquiry was a tough one at the time.

But it was the correct decision as events have proved. And at the end of the day that is what trust in political leadership has to be all about. What trust today in what our leaders told us at the time about Iraq? And what kind of corrosive effect does that have on politics generally? Yet the tragic experience of Iraq should have the opposite effect. And I believe it can. It should galvanise people to participate, to make their views known through the ballot box. It should strengthen all of our resolves to rededicate ourselves to the rebuilding of effective international institutions, to the repairing of shattered alliances among long-standing friends.

But within our own country – one lesson must be learned. This country is still crying out for an effective political system that responds to them and listens to the people. More openness. More accountability. Politicians taking responsibility for their decisions.

Never again must this country be led into war on the basis of questionable intelligence. Never again must this country be sold an incomplete and false prospectus as a basis for unilateral military action without the sanction of the United Nations. Never again must Britain find itself on such a basis so distanced from principal partners within Europe.

Never again should our troops find themselves without proper and adequate equipment in a war zone. Never again should such supreme Prime Ministerial power be allowed to progress without sufficient checks and balances. And without the proper operation of collective Cabinet government itself.

And never again should a so-called “official opposition” be entitled to that name when it so pathetically fails to fulfil its most basic parliamentary function and duty – the provision of constructive and effective questioning of the executive of the day.

Never again.

But we should not just look back in anger.

There is every sign that we need to look forward with increasing anxiety.

And that is why the Prime Minister should also take that opportunity to give a cast iron guarantee that the United Kingdom will not support unilateral military action against Iran.

You know some commentators will tell you that our recent victories are just the fall out from Iraq.

That the Lib Dems are just the protest vote.

Well, let’s face it. There has been a lot for people to protest about.

But we are being seen more and more as a party which does win elections, which does exercise responsible representation, which has become increasingly comfortable with the duties and the disciplines of power.

Some also say that you can’t go chasing left-wing voters and right-wing voters at one and the same time – while remaining consistent and true to your principles.

It is a deeply flawed analysis – based on a fundamental misreading of today’s Britain.

Why? Because for the vast majority of people who live their lives in an increasingly inter-dependent world, facing increasingly complex issues, for them the old-fashioned nostrums of right and left no longer apply.

There is a shift in the way people view politics, one that transcends any single issue.

Iraq has been part of this, but by no means is it the whole story.

I come across it, day in and day out.

People see that the Labour and Conservative agendas are converging.

Where as ours is about having the freedom to make the most of our lives.

It’s about what is fair – taxation based on ability to pay and delivery for all not the few.

And that you have to be able to trust your political leaders and your political parties to deliver.

There’s a deep-rooted sense in our country that somehow all is not quite right.

That somehow all is not as we’re being told it is.

An underlying sense of doubt.

Made worse by the fact that people just don’t trust this Government.

This Government flags up the big, long-term difficult issues – pension provision, funding local services, global warming – but then puts off serious discussion and decisions until safely beyond another general election.

But people don’t identify with the Conservatives – because that party just doesn’t connect with them.

They hark back to a Britain that is no more.

They’re out of touch with the Britain of today.

No wonder they fall back on hard-core instincts – and increasingly belongs to all our yesterdays.

In huge swathes of the country it’s the Conservatives who are now firmly established – as the third party.

In so much of the country a vote for the Conservatives is now a wasted vote.

The third party – on their third leader in as many years – and a third leader who’s just had his third reshuffle in less than a year.

Well, they say variety is the spice of life. For the Conservatives it looks to me much more like the kiss of death.

They belong to the past. We’re working for the future.

We are moving from a party of protest to a party of power.

3 party politics is here – and here to stay.

You know, at times this past year I’ve felt rather nostalgic. 21 years as a Member of Parliament. You learn quite a lot after more than two decades doing any job. Direct personal experience does teach along the way.

That’s why, whenever I’m asked to speculate – an occupational hazard – I always suggest to people not to waste time on the crystal ball, but instead learn from the history book.

It’s really quite simple.

For the country to believe in a political party – first that party has to believe in itself.

We’re at our best, we perform best, we persuade best – when we spend our time talking positively about what it is that we have to offer.

And we’re far more likely to achieve that from a position of principled party independence – not one distracted by noises off. So when people ask me “Where does your party stand?” my starting point is not the crystal ball. Instead, it’s crystal clear. No nods, no winks, no deals, no stitch ups.

If, on polling day at next general election, more people vote Liberal Democrat – then the next day and in the next parliament what you will get are more Liberal Democrats working for more liberal democracy.

Not something else.

But working all out for better public policies from Parliament.

Prepared to work with others on issues of principle – like Europe.

But not prepared to surrender our essential political independence along the way.

That’s our Liberal Democrat pledge to the people.

So there is a fundamental choice before us all at the next General Election. The British people have probably not more than 225 days left to choose between two essentially conservative parties – and the real alternative which is the Liberal Democrats.

225 days.

Then a stark choice. A serious choice. And we, increasingly, are the winning choice. Because all that we say and all that we do is based on those fundamentals. Freedom. Fairness. Trust.

Below is the text of the speech made by the then Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Charles Kennedy, to the 2005 Liberal Democrat Conference in Blackpool on 22nd September 2005.

Splits,

Plots,

Rival camps,

Backbiting,

Leadership speculation.

How I wish I could be a fly on the wall here at the Tory party conference in two weeks time.

Some things just don’t change do they.

The Conservatives are having yet another leadership election.

Their fourth in seven years.

I can see their conference slogan already.

“We’re not sure what we’re thinking”.

Meanwhile, back in Labourland, the jockeying goes on as ever between the Blairites and the Brownites.

Tony Blair – desperate to protect his legacy.

Gordon Brown – desperate to end it.

The Prime Minister was delighted he had a hand in bringing the Olympics to London.

It’s said on hearing the news he punched the air.

He’s getting more like John Prescott everyday.

But at least he’s not yet claimed credit for the Ashes.

Even he has learned the lesson that you can’t win with a team of eleven spinners!

Now, at the general election it was crucially important to see our liberal tradition again confirmed as the growing force in politics.

Our championing of the individual and the community over the vested interests of the state.

Our defence of human rights and fundamental civil liberties.

Our innate sense of fairness.

Our commitment to social justice.

Our environmentalism.

It is my determination that we, as a party, continue to make that fundamental restatement of liberal values in the politics of our country.

LIBERALISM TESTED

It’s remarkable the pace of events since that General Election.

Some events of the most immediate and terrible seriousness – like the awful consequences of the hurricane in the United States.

The continuing nightmare in Iraq.

And of course, terrorism – here at home.

Above all, the London bombings in July have made it critical for those liberal values to be re-asserted.

The terrorist seeks to smash the most fundamental liberty of all – the right to lead our everyday lives on the basic assumption of safety.

There can be no compromise with such a mentality.

It is the Government’s fundamental duty to ensure the security of every individual citizen.

And the responsibility of politicians is to frame laws which give effect to that principle.

But the response must always be proportionate to the threat.

That has always been our party’s approach.

It long predates those appalling attacks in London in July.

The Government’s reaction to those tube bombings has been mixed – but so typical.

At first it was measured.

Then it was muddled.

Spin and counterspin.

When what we really needed was leadership and clarity.

This is no time for a turf war between No. 10 and the Home Office.

And it is no time either for the Prime Minister to play politics with the leaders of the opposition.

I believe when the country feels threatened it is important that we are seen to be working together to find an appropriate structure for dealing with terrorists in our midst.

But I won’t play a walk-on part.

This process can’t be all show and no substance.

We now have the details of what the Government is proposing.

And I want to make it clear.

We shall not accept what is on offer.

There can be no consensus on detaining people for three months without charge.

That’s a prison sentence by any other name.

This party will oppose any blanket extension of custody powers.

This proposal undermines our most basic rights and eats into our most cherished freedoms.

If we undermine the foundations of our legal system then we let the terrorists win.

There is always a temptation for governments.

See a problem and announce a quick fix.

Labour’s gut reaction is to chase a headline.

Where as I said earlier, leadership has to be about judgement.

New law must be law which works – not a raft of unnecessary measures which simply sound tough.

That is why we will oppose the unworkable offence of ‘glorifying terrorism’.

It is a badly drafted proposal that frankly won’t stand up in court.

The Government says ‘but we all know what we are talking about’.

What complacency.

That is no way to make laws.

You can’t be vague when framing legislation.

In fact the bill already contains a better solution that will serve the same purpose – that of the incitement to commit terrorist acts.

It is my belief that how this administration deals with the ongoing threat of terrorism will be one of the defining aspects of this parliament.

Ours will be a distinct voice in this debate.

And just as we Liberal Democrats opposed the flawed logic of that war in Iraq – we will oppose the flawed Government claim that we have to surrender our fundamental rights in order to improve our security.

And I will take no lessons from the Conservatives on these matters.

They have only been consistent in their inconsistencies.

There is just one party which has been tested again and again and stuck firmly to its principles on these touchstone issues.

It’s our party, the Liberal Democrats.

That is not to say we will oppose for opposition’s sake.

Some aspects of the Government’s proposals are good.

We agree it should be an offence to plan terrorist acts.

We agree it should be an offence to provide training to terrorists.

We agree it should be an offence to incite terrorism.

But even if we can get our domestic response to terrorism right, we will not succeed unless, and until, we get our foreign policy right.

Along with President Bush, Tony Blair’s so-called ‘war on terror’ has been so badly implemented that it has actually boosted the terror threat not diminished it.

When they should have been concentrating on bringing a proper peace to Afghanistan – Bush and Blair waged war in Iraq.

It is our stance on the war in Iraq which has defined the Liberal Democrats for so many people.

And however hard this Government tries – it cannot ‘ move on’.

It cannot move on, when the Prime Minister remains in denial.

It can’t move on when people are dying every day.

And it cannot move on when our British troops are still there in the firing line.

It is absurd for this Government to pretend that what has happened in Iraq has no impact beyond its borders.

The reality is that invading Iraq was a terrible mistake.

And given all the warnings that I – and this party – made at the time – the failure to plan properly for the aftermath is unforgivable.

The invasion of Iraq has created a volatile, fragmented country now facing the threat of civil war.

The terrorists have been given a new lease of life.

Thousands have been killed in Iraq since the elections there.

The UN mandate is running out.

So hard choices must now be made.

Parliament must play a central part in those choices.

The Government must confront the fact that the presence of British and American forces in Iraq is a part of the problem.

After this week’s events in Basra we cannot sustain the myth that Iraqis see coalition troops as liberators.

What they see is an occupation.

The Government must wake up and admit its responsibility.

The Prime Minster’s pride should not get in the way of finding a solution for the people of Iraq.

His blind support for George Bush is continuing to cost lives –

Iraqi citizens and coalition soldiers.

It’s time he laid before parliament a proper, structured exit strategy for the phased withdrawal of British forces from Iraq.

They have served there with distinction, courage and skill.

But Prime Minister, what people are asking now is “when can our troops come home?”

A LIBERAL BRITAIN

Just as we showed over Iraq, we have achieved the most when we have stuck to our liberal values.

Now, more than ever, we must avoid getting distracted by noises off about whether we are left or right.

Viewing British politics through the prism of left vs. right is completely the wrong vantage point and it leads to quite a misleading view.

Why?

Because all experience shows that the vast majority of people no longer see their choices in old-fashioned left-right terms.

It is no longer possible to categorise most issues like that.

Just look at the things we have been discussing at conference this very week.

Meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals and controlling the flow of small arms to regions of conflict.

Maintaining both our security and our civil liberties.

Getting rid of the obsession with central control and target setting.

Race relations.

School discipline.

These don’t fall neatly into the old left/right axis.

Our solutions are liberal solutions based on our liberal principles.

Proposals to make the Post Office network viable and give Royal Mail the commercial freedom to compete.

Not left – not right – but liberal.

Proposals to reform the European Union budget.

Not left – not right – but liberal.

Proposals on tackling anti-social behaviour – solutions that Liberal Democrats in power up and down the country are already implementing.

Not left – not right – but liberal solutions that actually work.

Colleagues, we must not allow ourselves to be led by the media and define our debate in their terms.

This left/right, either/or mindset is out of date and out of time.

It is Liberal Democrat solutions that this country needs.

Our take on things.

Not the false interpretation of others, many of whom don’t wish us to succeed.

And let me say this clearly and firmly.

There is absolutely no contradiction between economic liberalism and financial discipline on the one hand, and fairness and social justice on the other.

I find it deeply ironic that as we approach the centenary of the greatest reforming Liberal Government ever that some people still believe you cannot reconcile the two.

Those who argue that somehow this party must choose one or the other would have received short shrift from Asquith and Lloyd George.

They would have found that argument utterly ludicrous.

We must display the liberal values that lie behind a particular stance on an issue, or a particular approach to a policy area.

In doing so we achieve lasting political credibility.

And it’s bringing results.

We run cities – Liverpool, Newcastle, Durham, Cambridge, York.

We run County Councils like Somerset, Devon and Cornwall.

London boroughs like Islington and Southwark.

Today we have MPs in almost every major city – Manchester, Leeds, London, Bristol, Cardiff, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh.

At the election we doubled our representation in Wales.

And in Scotland the result gave us more seats and more votes than any party except Labour.

The SNP down to third and the Tories a poor fourth.

When you look at our record in Government in Scotland it demonstrates how successful we are at implementing our policies that spring from those liberal values.

In Jenny Willott, Julia Goldsworthy and Jo Swinson we have the youngest MPs in Wales, England and Scotland – all women elected to parliament as Liberal Democrats.

A LIBERAL IDENTITY

So the political framework in Britain is changing.

And we are an integral part of that process.

But I believe the changes go deeper than that.

A debate has now been joined about Britishness, about our sense of national identity.

And what’s so telling are the morose tones of so many when they address the issue.

They talk of a disconnected country; a society ill at ease with itself; a crisis in our national identity.

Profound questions are being raised over race and faith as well; concerns which go to the heart of our multi-racial, multi-faith, multi-cultural society.

Concerns which cannot adequately be addressed if politicians merely fall back on simplistic responses to complex questions, or speak in emotive or pejorative terms about what it should mean to be British today.

I am far more an optimist.

Perhaps it’s because I’ve been born, educated and brought up, and always considered home to be the Highlands.

I think of myself as a highlander first.

But with it a Scot – and with that I’m British.

And through that a citizen of Europe.

When England play Scotland at rugby, or much more rarely now, in football – I have not doubt who I want to win.

But I cheered England through the Ashes.

I got caught up in the national mood.

I’m clear about my identity.

And in that, I am no different to tens of millions of British citizens.

We have recognise the complexity of our country – from city to city, community to community.

We have to recognise that the best way to tackle the tensions in our society is community by community.

We need stronger local politics.

And that requires a changed mindset among politicians and civil servants alike.

The truth is the gentleman in Whitehall does not know best.

If he had then many of the present difficulties might have been addressed more successfully and much sooner.

The same is true for our public services.

Labour’s obsession with authoritarian central control – with this culture of target setting and micromanaging – distorts community priorities.

It means that local people are making do with inadequate and badly structured services.

Yet they feel they don’t have the power to make real change in their communities.

That is why I am determined that in our policy review we will look at new and innovative ways of devolving power – of raising more money locally – to be spent locally – on what local people really want.

Ours is the liberal conscience and the liberal voice.

It’s vital and authentic.

Because to a far greater extent than any of the others we are a political party that is instinctively decentralist.

Community solutions are the first and best approach.

And why?

Because we trust people.

THE HEALTH OF BRITISH DEMOCRACY

But what trust can people have in our electoral system in return.

Let’s be clear about one unarguable conclusion of this year’s general election.

Ask yourself – how many votes did it take to elect a Liberal Democrat MP?

Well it was 96,000.

And to elect a Labour MP? The equivalent figure? Just 26,000.

People have every right to feel cheated by a system in which 4 out of 5 eligible voters did not vote Labour, yet people woke up the next morning to find a majority Labour government.

After all the other arguments collapsed over Iraq, Tony Blair fell back into saying that it was essential to help establish democracy.

He might have had a bit more credibility if he set an example here at home.

Because what kind of democracy was it that delivered back in May?

A democracy which returns an outright majority on little more than a third of the popular vote.

How can we any longer call something like that “the popular vote”?

How “popular” was the Government – even among those who did vote Labour?

That’s Blairite democracy for you.

This Prime Minister has got to realise – he may have a working majority, but he cannot claim any moral mandate.

This argument – about Westminster voting reform – just won’t go away.

And we’re not going to let it go away.

Even with the odds stacked against us, the truth is, at this election, Labour became just as worried about the Liberal Democrats as they ever were about the Tories.

And in that they were undoubtedly correct.

We represent a change to the status quo.

An end to their comfortable two party system.

We threaten directly their arrogance in power.

And I say to all those who held their nose last May and voted Labour without conviction – don’t get fooled again.

But you know what I reject most of all is the idea of British politics being a desultory contest between two essentially conservative parties.

One calls itself Conservative.

The other conducts itself as conservative.

I don’t care if one is led by a Davis or a Clarke.

I don’t care if the other is led by a Blair or a Brown.

What people don’t want, don’t deserve and don’t demand is yet another conservative party in British politics.

Small c or capital c.

That part of the pitch is already overcrowded.

And I can assure all of you – I did not enter public life with the ambition of leading yet another conservative party in British politics.

I’m happy to leave it to others to compete over a law of diminishing returns.

One where the level of Labour support is on the slide.

And the Conservatives cannot break through a losing glass ceiling.

At the next general election you could well be looking at a situation where it is understood that the Conservatives cannot win –

But that Labour can certainly lose.

That’s our opportunity.

That’s our challenge.

AMBITION FOR BRITAIN

When this Labour Government falls – which one day it surely will – the party that is ready for the challenge of government will be ours.

I will lead this party into the next election as the clear alternative to a discredited Labour Government.

It’s my ambition to lead the first government in the liberal tradition in the 21st Century.

Because, it is my ambition to restore to government in Britain the fairness, the decency and the tolerance that should be the hallmarks of our democracy and our society.

I want a Britain that tackles poverty – and with it the poverty of ambition.

I want a Britain in which every one of our children has the opportunities I had growing up – and more besides!

A Britain in which ambition and opportunity is not diminished by the circumstances of birth.

I want a Britain which pays its debt to our older generation.

Which looks after them when they are ill and in need.

Which provides our pensioners with dignity, security and peace of mind.

I want a society that tackles crime – but really does tackle the causes of crime.

I want a Britain where older people again feel safe to answer their doors.

Where parents can let their children walk to school – or play in the park – without the incessant worry.

Where our streets and town centres are free from fear at night.

And I want a system of prison, punishment and rehabilitation that produces people fit for work not just fit for re-offending.

I want a Britain with first class public services, so that people can be treated well in a local hospital, and they don’t have to shop around for a decent school – they are there on the doorstep.

I want a Britain that has a vibrant growing economy – that rewards success, not penalises it.

That encourages innovation and entrepreneurs, setting them free from over-regulation and the dead hand of government.

Only in that way can we hope to generate the revenue to afford the world-class services we need as a country.

I want my child to grow up in a Britain in which the environment is protected.

I want him to enjoy our natural landscape every bit as much as I do.

To breathe clean air.

It will be our children and their children who will feel the full consequences of climate change.

We have got to get serious about this.

I’m sick and tired of hearing Tony Blair make excuse after excuse for George Bush.

We need action and we need it now.

I want a Britain that is pro-European and proud of it.

That lives up to its responsibilities on the international stage – that values international law – that is genuinely outward looking and emphatically internationalist.

Because, I want a Britain that is respected around the world.

These are the ambitions that brought me into politics in the first place 25 years ago.

These are the things that have driven me over those years – and still drive me.

Below is the text of a speech made by the then Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Charles Kennedy, to the 2002 TUC annual conference.

It gives me great pleasure to be the first leader of the Liberal Democrats to be invited to address Congress, although it’s by no means the first time that I’ve been in attendance.

This is, of course, a day of commemoration. I have my own indelible memory of visiting Ground Zero not long after September 11th. I had the privilege of meeting the members of the emergency services who had been there that day, risked their lives and seen so many of their colleagues and others forfeit theirs. It was a day which saw unimaginable horror but also unimaginable courage which will never be forgotten.

Two years ago, John Monks became the first TUC General Secretary to address a Liberal Democrat annual conference. So this speech, if you like, is a return match. A significant proportion of trades union members now regularly vote Liberal Democrat. So good, constructive dialogue is important and I’m grateful to the TUC for keeping us well briefed on issues of mutual concern.

The fruits of our cooperation have been seen at Westminster. We’ve continued our long campaign alongside the nurses’ unions against the disgracefully low pay which has led so many people to leave that vital profession.

We’ve supported the teachers in their attempts to reduce the bureaucracy which has demoralized their profession so much.

In industry, we backed the demands which were successfully made by a number of unions for more flexible working. That’s especially important to women.

And we’ve also campaigned alongside you for Britain to adopt the European directive on Information and Consultation. Personally I thought it was a scandal that, when Vauxhall decided to shut a plant down, the first the workforce heard about it was on the radio.

We’re strongly in favour too of tougher action on health and safety.

And we share your anxieties about company pensions. Some employers have arbitrarily curtailed pension entitlements in an outrageous way. Liberal Democrats believe that members of pension schemes should have much clearer rights and much better legal protection.

Such attention to detail is extremely important. But so is the big picture. There’s an emerging consensus between us – from Europe to environmental responsibility, from employee rights to worker participation, from public services to the welfare state.

I’m a lifelong believer in trade unionism. When I was given a job as a shelf-stacker as a teenager, I immediately joined the shop-workers union USDAW. And from my first days as an MP – facing the onslaught of Thatcherism – I was convinced that strong trades unions were healthy for society.

And that strength derived from being accountable to and representative of their individual members. And such strength gave greater legitimacy to the vital role of modern, progressive trades unionism in the national agenda of democratic governance .

In those days we were way behind too much of continental Europe in this respect.

So I was delighted when Jacques Delors as Commission President addressed this Congress. That was a real turning-point. Remember how infuriated Mrs. Thatcher was? Satisfaction enough in itself for many of us.

But there was also great long-term benefit to all the progressive forces across the British body politic. It began to help shift the rhetoric – and the real agenda followed on.

There’s a pleasing sense of historical continuity here. The earliest trades union members were Liberals; Liberals in government pioneered the state pension; it was a Liberal, Beveridge, drawing on the work of the trade unions, who went on to lay down the intellectual foundations of the welfare state, enacted by the Attlee government.

Our party is strongly attached to the ideal of freedom. But that doesn’t mean simply leaving everything to the market.

As Beveridge said himself: ‘Liberty means more than freedom from the arbitrary power of Governments. It means freedom from economic servitude to Want and Squalor and other social evils.’

We Liberal Democrats believe in dialogue. We believe in cooperation with both sides of industry and between both sides of industry. And we believe in the language of cooperation. We reject the language of confrontation.

Of course we’re not going to agree automatically with everything you say.

And I believe that the momentum of public opinion is swinging towards both of us –

Liberal Democrats and trade unionists alike.

When John addressed our conference two years ago he spoke tellingly about different approaches to capitalism. He rejected – and we do too – what he called ‘the deregulated wild-west devil take the hindmost style of the US.’

Two years on and the American model is looking distinctly shop-soiled and tarnished.

Slowly, but surely, the more socially-orientated European approach is coming to be appreciated. Not least when it involves a degree of social and environmental responsibility.

Consider these words:-

‘In business, the warts on the face of capitalism – every Enron story, every bit of creative accounting, every shoddy or overpriced product, every little exploitation of an employee or a supplier, every unjustified increase in executive remuneration, every bit of damage to the environment – each one of these has a cumulative, corrosive effect.

‘A company that simply dances to the fickle tunes of the financial markets does itself no good – nor the wider interests of business, nor the cause of capitalism.’

Karl Marx? Arthur Scargill? Tony Benn?

No, in fact I’m quoting from this year’s personal valedictory address by the retiring President of the CBI, Sir Iain Vallance. Incidentally, Sir Iain has subsequently

joined the Liberal Democrats.

It seems that Sir Edward Heath’s ‘unacceptable face of capitalism’ is still with us.

But it’s not mission impossible to transform its appearance.

Of course we believe in markets. Nobody’s talking about a return to old fashioned state run bureaucracies. But the European approach to markets is preferable to the American model in almost every way. It treats workers decently. It protects their rights. It delivers quality public services. It’s better at long-term planning. And it makes for a stronger and more stable economy.

It would be better still for Britain to join the euro – at the right exchange rate. We look to the Government to give a lead.

But I’m not convinced that Ministers sufficiently grasp the broader merits of Europe.

Take the public services. Britain has fallen woefully behind our European partners when it comes to the standard of our hospitals, schools and transport system.

We Liberal Democrats – like you in the TUC – called for the Government to put in the investment needed much earlier and faster than they have.

But now at last they’ve done what we asked them to do. So it’s become a question of how the money’s best spent.

I don’t say that everything should be done through the public sector. I have no ideological hang-ups between public and private. What I do say is that there shouldn’t be an automatic American-style assumption that the private sector is always better.

So let’s retain all our collective, critical faculties over the next few years over the funding and the delivery of the public services.

I welcome the extra investment the Government has belatedly promised for public services.

But I am concerned about the fairness and transparency by which the sums involved are being raised. I fear that Gordon Brown’s extra billions for the NHS will be squandered unless we reform the tax system to make sure the taxpayer gets value for money. That’s why I shall strongly support a proposal to be put to our party conference later this month to take health funding out of general taxation.

Our proposal is to turn National Insurance into National Health Insurance. That would give people a cast-iron guarantee that the money raised for health is actually spent on the NHS – not sucked into the Treasury.

Earmarking National Insurance – perhaps to be renamed the NHS Contribution – can easily be achieved because it raises almost exactly the amount of money that needs to be spent on the NHS. What’s more, it’s set to rise above inflation in years to come. This way, we’ll guarantee extra funding for health in the long-term, regardless of the Chancellor’s short-term calculations at budget time.

Far too many decisions over public services are taken behind closed doors by the man – and, all too often, it still remains the man – in Whitehall. So the second part of our reform plan for health – and indeed for education too – is for a major shift in power away from Whitehall to each locality in Britain.

I want to see far more decisions taken far closer to the patients, the passengers and the pupils. Far more power for locally and regionally elected politicians who understand best the needs of their areas. And far more say too for the dedicated staff at all levels in health and education.

That way the extra resources stand a far better chance of getting through to the front line rather than being swallowed-up by bureaucrats in quango-land. The Liberal Democrats and the TUC are never going to be in each other’s pockets. From our financial point of view, chance would be a fine thing!

But just as we have to build a party that’s in no-one else’s pocket, largely by digging into our own, so the progressive forces in our society can only stand to mutual benefit by a principled process of cooperation.

Thank you for your invitation today. I hope that this contribution assists towards that highly desirable social and political aspiration.

Below is the text of the maiden speech made by Charles Kennedy to the House of Commons on 15th July 1983.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for recognising me on this the occasion of my maiden speech. I think that the House, and especially the hon. Member for Newham, North-East (Mr. Leighton), will agree that it is appropriate that I should deliver my maiden speech during a debate on the future of the younger generation. As fate would have it, I find myself the youngest Member of this distinguished House. I hope that the hon. Member for Eltham (Mr. Bottomley) will find it interesting to witness a live specimen of today’s subject matter.

Although the younger generation is a concern of the present and even more so of the future, as the new Member for the new constituency of Ross, Cromarty and Skye I find myself deeply aware and conscious of the past and of those who have preceded me in representing the old constituency of Ross and Cromarty. As many Liberal Members will be aware, it was represented from 1964 to 1970 by the late Alasdair Mackenzie, who was a distinguished and highly thought of Member of this place during his time in it.

From 1970 until this election it was represented by the Conservative Member, Mr. Hamish Gray. I congratulate him on his peerage and movement to another place. I congratulate him equally on his appointment as Minister of State at the Scottish Office. As many know, there was considerable interest and, indeed, controversy not just in the Highlands but in Scotland generally about his appointment. I am optimistic and encouraged by what happened to Lord Gray, and I hope that it sets a trend by the Government. I hope that 3 million people, many of whom lost their jobs largely as a result of Government policies, will shortly be placed, as a result of Prime Ministerial decision, in much better jobs.

One figure who is certainly not a name or force of the past but very much of the present, to the extent that he is sitting behind me, is my hon. Friend who was the hon. Member for Inverness—with the boundary changes parts of his constituency have been moved into Ross, Cromarty and Skye — and who is now the hon. Member for Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber (Mr. Johnston). I pay tribute to him and promise that I will try to follow in his footsteps with the diligence that he has shown to the parts of his former constituency that I have inherited.

William Lyon Mackenzie King, who was Prime Minister of Canada, once said that the problem with that country was that it had too much geography and not enough history. The problem with my constituency is that it has more than its fair share of both. My constituency and the Highlands generally have had more than their fair share of a bad deal in recent years in their chances and opportunities, especially for the younger generation.

A perennial problem that has faced the Scottish Highlands is that, time and again, too many of the more talented young people have had to move elsewhere—even abroad — through a lack of opportunities that should have been available. In the 1960s we believed that there was a golden opportunity for that part of the country. However, under the previous Conservative Government’s policies that golden opportunity has turned to dross, largely as a result of the Government’s economic approach and social disregard. The pulp mill in Fort William has been closed. In my constituency, the Invergordon smelter closed and, more recently, there have been lost opportunities with the abandonment of the gas-gathering project, although there are still strong signs that that project should go ahead.

Despite their vast majority and the convincing lead, which they will have for the next four or five years, in the Division Lobbies, the Government must display greater sensitivity to the problems of the Highlands, and especially of its young people. I make that sincere plea on behalf of my constituents. The alliance will work constructively during this Parliament to assist and support, with any help that the Government can give, the Highlands and this group of its people. One example of a scheme that will provide job opportunities is the Ben Wyvis development. I hope that the Secretary of State for Scotland’s comments on financial commitment will be supported and that we shall see a more pragmatic and less doctrinaire approach from the Government to the traditional concerns of the Highlands, such as farming, fishing and forestry.

In the few short weeks since I was elected the Forestry Commission has proposed to sell Ratagan forest in Glenelg. That is a product of the constraints that have been placed on the commission by the Government. There is considerable local opposition to the proposed sale, and I hope that the Government will rethink their attitude and take stock generally of the problems faced by the forestry, fishing and farming interests in the Highlands. Young people, hoping to enter those industries, have been discouraged. The hon. Member for Newham, North-East will agree that our subject for debate is extremely relevant to my constituency. It is fair to demand more pragmatism and constructive thinking of the Government.

I have two basic observations, which I formulated during my election campaign, on the attitudes of young people. I know that other right hon. and hon. Members reached the same conclusions during the constituency campaigns. First, there is a yawning gap in outlook between those who have a job and those who have not. Some Ministers are fond of talking about a return to Victorian values. We must realise that those Victorian values are being expressed by some of the younger people in this society in shameful and disturbing disregard for other members of their generation who are not as fortunate as they are in having a job. That is disturbing for a Government of any political complexion. The yawning gulf is becoming wider as, each month, the unemployment total increases. I hope that the Government will take cognisance of that during this Parliament.

My second observation is relevant to my party and the Liberal party. We have heard much from the Liberal and Social Democratic parties, and I do not doubt that we shall hear even more in future, about the iniquities of our electoral system. Under the present system many people are effectively disfranchised—the Whip will be pleased to know that I will not comment on that today. However, voluntary disfranchisement is also taking place. During my campaign people of my age and younger said consistently that they would not vote because their votes simply no longer matter and because no Government or Member of Parliament cared a whit about their problems and their striving for employment. That is disturbing for all of the parties and all hon. Members. Those who will contribute most to British democracy in the future are extricating themselves from the system already because they believe that it is no longer relevant. Part of the solution to that is electoral reform, but even more urgent is the need for a more tolerant, caring and compassionate Government. Sadly, we do not have that at the moment. I hope— I say this to the Minister in a constructive fashion—that we shall have it in due course.

To involve young people and make sure that the system is more relevant to them in Scotland, we have a clear obligation to implement a policy of home rule. Lord Home said not so many years ago that there was a genuine grass roots desire in Scotland for more decisions to be taken by the Scots. If that were implemented and the Government made a compromise or concession on that issue, young people in Scotland, and in the Highlands as much as anywhere else, would feel more affected by and therefore more involved in our political institutions. Home rule was supported by voters across a broad spectrum of parties in Scotland, which received significantly more support than the Conservative party. It is a legitimate demand, which is backed up in the ballot box. I hope that if the Government care about the younger generation they will see it as a way forward and a means to improve young people’s involvement in our political institutions.

The hon. Member for Eltham alluded to this. Throughout Britain over the past few years there has been a considerable decline in our fortunes. There has been a considerable decline in manufacturing, matched by a lost generation of younger people who are now unemployed and who, in terms of training and skill, might be fated to be classed as unemployable. The great sadness about the economic policy of the past four years is that when the recession bottoms out and when the world economy begins to pick up, we shall not have a skilled work force of the right age group to take advantage of it. That, coupled with the manufacturing decline and the rundown and closing down of industry, will mean that we shall lack the right blend of manpower and machinery to capitalise, as we should, on the improvements in our economic fortunes.

Equally important is that there is surely a moral responsibility for any Government and any Parliament to try to represent legitimate interests. What interests could be more legitimate than the interests of the younger generation who represent the country’s future? Yet, despite the best-laid plans of mice and even Ministers on youth training and youth opportunities, there is not enough for young people. That undermines the moral basis of government. It undermines respect for and participation in the democratic process. As a result of both those present tendencies, there is a disturbing implication for the country’s social, political and economic future. I feel most strongly about that and I urge the Government sincerely to address their priorities to the matter during this Parliament.

I hope that the Government will take heed because, if they do not, many Opposition Members will continue to remind them of it. I hope that, as the leader of my party said in his recent speech in the House, the Government will succeed in their objectives because that is in all our interests. It is from that constructive position that we approach the whole issue and from which I give my wholehearted support to the motion of the hon. Member for Newham, North-East.